Himitsu was far away by the time anyone realized she was gone. She had no clue where she was going, but she knew that she could find her way. She had found out how to call Ryo, after all. Surely she could find her way physically to him without too much trouble. She would much rather have used her skill at sneaking around to bring Gingka with her, but she knew that that was too dangerous to risk. Despite how badly as she wanted to see him again, to see who he had become and what he looked like now, she refrained. There would be a heavy guard around him, and she would need her father's permission to even get through any of the doors. Even being the daughter of the one in charge was not a good enough reason to be let through security of that level.
Himitsu sighed, doubts entering her mind. She was outside, but now what? With no map to guide her and only a handful of money that she hoped would be enough, she was on her own. Would Ryo even want to see her? She had been helping him, sure, but she could tell that he had not realized the full truth about her.
"Setsuna, how many times have I told you not to go outside and speak to strange men!"
"But father, I-!"
"No buts! Go back to your room! I will not have my only daughter be running off with some riff-raff blader!"
The woman sighed in exasperation and paused for a moment, pinching the bridge of her nose in an attempt to get rid of the memories that had been popping up in her head since late last night when she had built up the courage to sneak past the guards at her own back door and leave. She was not entirely sure how to interact with people but surely it was easier than interacting with her father. No social interaction could be harder than forcing herself to pretend she was okay with all that that tyrant had put her through. Honestly, she thought to herself, it was probably criminal of him to have kept her locked up for so long. She could not even quite remember the last time she had been truly outside. She had never truly been free.
It took nearly two days for Himitsu to reach Tokyo. By the time she got there, she was completely exhausted, having spent very little of that time sleeping. Even her sleep had been often interrupted by paranoia that her father's agents would find her and take her back. She had completely run out of the small amount of money that she had managed to bring with her from home. Basically, she was in trouble if she did not accomplish her goal soon.
Himitsu was exhausted, hungry, sore, and lost, but her determination kept her going as it always had. Her only chance was to find out where the WBBA was. If she failed that before her father found her or hunger and cold drove her insane, then all was lost. As the woman looked up, she realized that she was surprisingly close to her destination. She wrapped her arms close around herself, hugging the bag she had brought with her close to her chest, and trotted dutifully towards the tall building at the end of the block.
At first, the Tokyo WBBA building looked quite warm and inviting, brightly lit even despite how late it was getting. But the closer Himitsu got, the more doubts entered her mind. Would she be let in? If she were let in, would she be allowed to stay? Would Ryo let her come see him, not knowing who she was, even despite her calling to warn him of the danger Gingka was in?
"But I have to go.." She whispered. "I have to see him. I have to let him know, otherwise… Gingka may not stand a chance. I have to try."
With this thought in mind, she stepped towards the building and put her hand on the door, taking a deep breath before pulling it open and stepping inside, shivering slightly and rubbing her hands up and down her arms slightly. The dimmed lighting in the lobby provided just enough light to see by without being too extreme of a change from outside. At the other side of the tiled and freshly-cleaned floor was the reception desk, with a young female worker sitting at it and typing things into the computer. The worker looked up in surprise as Himitsu approached, noting the long and slightly tangled hair and dusty light blue dress she was wearing.
"Can I help you, ma'am?" the worker asked the older woman.
"I-I need to see your director, please. It's urgent." Himitsu said, trying to keep her voice steady.
The worker at the desk raised an eyebrow. "Do you have an appointment with Director Hagane?"
"I- no.. He doesn't know I'm coming." Himitsu sighed. "B-but, I have spoken to him on the phone recently, if you just tell him that Himitsu is here, he should let me see him."
The young woman looked hesitant, but picked up her desk phone. "I cannot promise that he will let you see him, ma'am. But I will see."
"Thank you miss." Himitsu nodded politely.
The worker motioned her hand towards a few rows of cushioned chairs. "Please have a seat while you wait." she said, putting the phone to her ear and pressing a few buttons.
"Oh, thank you." Himitsu turned and sat down in the nearest chair, fidgeting with her bag and trying to calm herself down. Everything she was doing was terrifying to her. Tokyo was much larger than she had thought it would be, she realized, having never seen any group of buildings larger than the small town she had grown up and spent her entire life so far on the edge of. She felt slightly closed in, even despite the large lobby she was sitting in. The bird who had spent its entire life locked in a cage had finally taken the chance to get out, and now felt only the empty air with nothing in sight that was secure to land on.
"Director, do you have a moment?" Hikaru's voice interrupted Ryo's focus on his work, which he was barely managing to do anyway. The redhead sighed and looked up at his assistant, his eyes bloodshot, with dark circles of worry and weariness underneath them.
"What for?" he muttered, stretching for a moment and realizing that he had been hunched over his desk for much longer than he had thought.
"The front desk worker just called. She said there's a Himitsu here who wants to see you." Hikaru said.
Ryo froze for a second before looking at Hikaru in disbelief. "Himitsu?" He said, unsure if he had heard her right.
"Yes." Hikaru replied. "Here."
"... Send her up immediately." Ryo said, urgency in his voice as he closed everything he had been working on, unable to focus in even the slightest anymore on any of it. He had not been making much progress anyway, he thought wryly.
As Hikaru nodded and went to call the receptionist back and relay Ryo's orders, the redhead sank into his chair and rested his chin in his hand, tapping on his desk anxiously with the other hand. He was not sure at all why Himitsu would be here, if this was a trick, if her father had found out about her calls to him and was sending someone as a threat to him. He knew that he could not back down. Perhaps Himitsu had decided to come personally because she was in danger? Or worse, because there was something so urgent that she had felt the need to speak with him in person?
A million thoughts ran through Ryo's mind, and he could have sworn he felt more of his hair turning grey because of them. He forced himself to stay calm and not assume anything, but then again, talks with the secretive woman had only ever been of the extremely serious type. He shook as he worried for his son's well-being. There was no point in thinking of his safety, Gingka was already not in a safe place. Ryo only hoped that his son was unharmed for the time being.
"Director, she is here now." Hikaru called, opening the door and letting in a woman who was immediately familiar to Ryo.
Ryo stood so quickly that he knocked over his chair in his shock. "Y-You…" he whispered in trembling tones.
The travel-wearied woman standing just inside the doorway bit her lip slightly and smiled sadly. "It.. Has been a long time, Ryo."
Ryo took a deep breath and swallowed thickly. "I.. thought you never wanted to see me again…"
She shook her head. "My father lied to you. It was he that never wanted to see you again after what we did behind his back." she slowly approached him. "I hope… You aren't bothered by seeing me? Even though it isn't under the best of circumstances?"
Ryo motioned Hikaru out of the room as he stepped towards the woman and hugged her tightly against his chest. "You are my wife… There is no other person I would rather see under these circumstances." He whispered, fighting to keep himself from sobbing. "Setsuna.. I missed you so much."
"We don't have much time to catch up, I'm afraid… I managed to escape but my father will have noticed me gone and.. Might guess that I would come here to you." Setsuna sniffled, burying her dusty face into Ryo's suit.
"Let him come." Ryo muttered angrily. "He won't be ruining anything else for us. It was long past time you were able to escape from him." he put a hand on Setsuna's cheek and gently swiped away the tears from her eyes with his thumb, tilting her head up slightly to look at her face. "Twenty years… You're still so beautiful."
Setsuna managed a trembling smile at this. "I had hoped you wouldn't have forgotten me."
"I could never. You still have the piece of my heart that I gave you, after all."
She blushed at this. "You still know how to do that?"
"Do what?" Ryo asked innocently, a mischievous grin on his face, his problems momentarily forgotten at the joy of seeing his wife again.
Setsuna sighed and leaned her head back against his shoulder, closing her eyes. "Everything right…"
Ryo's expression softened into a gentle, sad smile. "Not everything… But a lot of things, sure."
"... We have to get Gingka out." She said suddenly, pulling away from him.
"Do you know where he is?" Ryo asked, mentally smacking himself for having forgotten about the enormous problem at hand.
"I wish I did… But no. He is not at my old family home, I know that much. I snooped around there with the hope of being able to see him after he was taken captive, but found nothing. It wasn't very likely that he would be kept there anyway, my father does know who he is to us."
Ryo nodded gravely. "I've had people on it searching, but… Nothing. He was taken captive in China, but since your father is in Japan, it seems more likely that he would be here. That.. At least somewhat narrows our search, possibly." he pulled up a second chair next to his own at his desk and sat down, Setsuna sitting next to him.
"What do we do then?" She asked.
"Any other information you have, I need. Anything you can think of that you weren't able to tell me over the phone due to risk of being caught." he said urgently, grasping her hand in his as he used his other hand to use his computer.
Setsuna nodded, determination filling her grey-blue eyes. "What do we do after that?" She asked as she began to wrack her brain for information that she had not already relayed.
Ryo looked deeply into her eyes, the same determination filling his own. "We call everyone else involved and tell them."
The two nodded in sync, parental instincts on high alert as they began to furiously gather their information into one place. They would find their son. They were determined to. They had been denied the ability to raise him together, but they would not be denied the ability to save him together.
AHHHHH I'm not even gonna say that I'll try to update this sooner than last time because I keep breaking that promise but HERE WE ARE AGAIN. WITH FEELS. AND PLOT REVEALS. BECAUSE YOU ALL KNOW WHAT 'HIMITSU' BEING GINGKA'S MOTHER, MEANS RIGHT? THE VILLAIN IS GINGKA'S GRANDFATHER. So take that dramatic plot twist and still-unresolved cliffhanger and I shall see you next time!
